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AmblesideOnline: Handicrafts

After
reading Charlotte Mason's referrence to handicrafts in her first volume
I began to understand that she meant something totally different.
Learning a handicraft is learning a life skill. In my own words, CM
wrote that handicrafts is not time spent making what she referred to as
futilities (she gave pea and stick figures and paper mats as an example
of futilities); but a handicraft should be a skill that is taught
slowly and carefully. And since sloppy work should not be accepted, we
are to be careful in choosing the appropriate handicrafts for our
children.

Charlotte
Mason offered a list of what she considered handicrafts appropriate for
children under 9. Some are more realistic for me than others :). They
are chair caning, carton-work, basket work, rug making, Japanese
curtians, carving in cork, samplers on coarse canvas showing a variety
of stitches, easy needlework, and knitting.

This
year I decided to do away with pre-fab crafts and learn a craft in the
true sense of the word. In our local homeschool group we have a mother
who is an expert knitter. She graciously taught me and my 7 year old to
knit and my 4 year old to spool knit. I've enjoyed it so much that I
took an evening knitting class with my mother at our local knitting
store. It has been such a wonderful thing both personally and for our
school. We're learning a skill that can be used for a lifetime and have
discovered the pleasure and satisfaction of working on something and
creating something. This handicraft has extended far beyond the limits
of our "school time." In fact my 7 year old woke me up this morning by
plopping on my bed with her knitting needles and yarn in hand saying,
"Mommy, I dropped a stitch and need you to find it for me."

Katherine
in TX

In
one of our CM support group meetings, we took on the topic of
handicrafts. There were two sections in particular in the series which
I found helpful.

The
points to be borne in children's handicrafts are:(a) that they should
not be employed in making futilities such a pea and stick work, paper
mats, and the like; (b) that they should be taught slowly and carefully
what they are to do; (c) that slipshod work should not be allowed; (d)
and that, therefore, the children's work should be kept well within
their compass. Volume 1, Home Education pp 315, 316.

Again
we know that the human hand hand is a wonderful and exquisite
instrument to be used in a hundred movements exacting delicacy,
direction and force; every such movement is a cause of joy as it leads
to the pleasure of execution and the triumph of success. We begin to
understand this and make some efforts to train the young in the deft
handling of tools and the practice of handicrafts. Some day perhaps, we
shall see apprenticeship to trades revived and good and beautiful work
enforced. In so far, we are laying ourselves out to secure that each
shall "live his life"; and that, not at his neighbor's expense;
because, so wonderful is the economy of the world that when a man
really lives his life he benefits his neighbor as wll as himself; we
all thrive in the well being of each. Volume 6, Philosophy of Education
p. 328

I
really like the idea of teaching our children skills that can bless and
benefit others. If your childen become skilled in handicrafts, just
imagine what lovely gifts they can make for people all their life long.

One
idea we discussed at the meeting was that it was very important for
some of the projects chosen to be ones that required some time. There
is great value in a child learning that a handicraft can be worked on
for a period of time with an end result of producing something of
beauty that is really worthwhile and useful. Other points made were
that handicrafts teach hand-eye coordination, keep young hands busy
with industry, help children to see progression in skill and perhaps
most important the spiritual implications of creating-as created beings
we are called to be creative. Handicrafts give an outlet to this
calling.

Here
is the list I came up with for ideas for handicrafts.

The
ones with an asterisk are perhaps more boy friendly although I must say
kudos to the AO mom who has her boys doing cross stitch!

This
is a topic dear to my heart although I must admit that I do not
emphasize it nearly enough in my own family's life. I am however
greatly encouraged to see some of the beautiful things my 10 yo dd has
produced. How grateful I am for our home education lifestyle which
allows our children free time to explore their creative gifts!

Jeannette
in TN

Wow.
I really hesitate to add to Jeanette's excellent post on handiwork, and
in fact, I only do so because I finished writing mine before I saw hers
and I hate to just delete it.=) But really, what Jeanette said.=) And
here's what I just finished:What follows is an updated and revised
compilation of previous things I've said about handiwork.

Regarding
handwork:With any topic, it helps me figure out how to apply CM to my
homeschool by taking Some initial steps. The first step I personally
need to take is to figure out what Charlotte actually said or did.
That's where I do the quote search.

So
what did CM say about handwork? In that infamous 'somewhere' I think
that Charlotte writes that children under nine can be doing chair
caning, basket work, rug making, and knitting for handwork. I'm pretty
sure she also includes things like mending. Whoa.

The
second step I need to take (this is how I personally figure things out)
is to figure out what was she trying to accomplish, what was the
principle? Charlotte talks a lot about educating children for the
future lives as adults and she talks about them feeling comfortable
with materials, with doing and making things.

After
I've figured out what she actually said, and what other principles from
her works apply to this topic and what it was she intended to
accomplish, then I figure out what it might mean for my homeschool. My
understanding, based on the previous steps is that the right sort of
handicraft is one that somehow could tranlsate into a later adult
activity. Roughly, if it's the kind of thing the children could still
be interested in doing as adults, it qualifies. Adults do not generally
make pictures of beans and seeds, or pipecleaner butterflies, or
juicecan pencil holders.=)

So
that's what I avoid in our handwork periods. I try to look for skills
that will carry over into adult projects.

origami
is a good option, and there are origami things that children 6-9 can
make with just enough trouble to feel proud of themselves. We dip some
origami projects in melted wax to make Christmas tree ornaments.

I've
helped them at about age six sew buttons, they usually enjoy that and
feel so important. Crochet a chain and make a dollhouse rug. Corking is
another project they might enjoy (you know, that little spool thing
with four spokes up top, you wrap yarn around it to make a sort of
knitted chain), Rubber stamping is another option.

We
also have a dollhouse and a book of dollhouse things to make for the
younger set. I think our girls started with this when they were around
7 or 8, but they've continued and gotten better and better. I gave them
polymer clay for Christmas and they've enjoyed making doll dishes and
food as well as little animals for the dollhouse. Now 11 and 13 these
two girls have gotten better and better at dollhouse miniatures, a
hobby many adults still have.

One
child at 8 y.o. made a very cute little gingerbread man out of felt
scraps. She used a cookie cutter to trace two gingerbread man shapes.
Then she made eyes by sewing french knots with blue embroidery floss.
She made a smiling mouth with red embroidery floss, and she took it out
four times before she felt she had it right. Then she put the two sides
together and sewed them together with an overcast stitch. She's going
to put a fabric paint heart on it later. We got the idea for this
project from a Current catalog. They were selling four felt Christmas
ornaments, and they looked very simple to make, so I helped her figure
out what she needed to do for each step and made suggestions for floss
color.

One
child at 9y.o. attempted stamped cross stitch. This 9 y.o. was not
successful with it, but her 10 y.o. sister was.

The
same 10 y.o. sewed a sock doll all on her own, with no help from me
at all, except to show her a particular stitch from a diagram in
another book. We got two books from teh library, one on sock dolls, one
called something like "Dolls Kids Can Make," and she used the second
one to make her doll.

At 12
one of ours liked latch-hook rug and pillow kits (we get ours at the
thrift shop).

And
I don't know if this counts as a handicraft, but I've taught my girls
how to make handkerchief dolls- a type that doesn't require sewing. You
just fold, roll, and knot in a certain way and get a little doll. I've
taught them to do this when they were as young as four. They've whiled
away many a quiet hour at Grandma's house doing this. They've even
amused themselves making them with paper napkins in restaurants. I
figure this simple, cheap, quiet skill will help them amuse younger
siblings, nephews, nieces, and their own children when they grow up. So
I count it as a handicraft;-) I found one description
online: http://hcsv.org/hcsvkids/handkerchief.htm

In
the same way, they can also make little boats out of magazine pages.
They learned to do this very young, and we learned the proper folds
from a Curious George book. Curious George used newspaper, but we like
magazines because they are brighter, float longer, adn fun to figure
out where the most color will be as we fold them. A more complicated
paper boat is here: http://www.highhopes.com/maverickboats.html
Another
page of instructions with instructions like those we use, along with
lots of extras is here: http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/paper_ship.htm

Another
handwork project we did was to sew short lengths of elastic along the
center, ourside edge of each of our towels. This was to make it easier
to hang the towels on hooks. Two of the girls did this when they were
around 9 and 10.